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Education

It now seems unlikely certain employees that work for the Los Alamos Public Schools will be getting that 1.5 percent pay raise after all, at least not this school year.
In February, the Los Alamos School Board approved a 1.5-percent increase for all school employees that weren’t teachers.
The raise was to be retroactive to the beginning of the school year.
The district would have spent $60,696 this year, relying on salary savings. Next year, the district planned to spend $121,000 in raises and would have paid for it through the money the district saved through upcoming retirements.
Assistant Superintendent of Schools Gerry Washburn made the announcement at a recent board meeting.
While the school board approved the raise, it was up to the New Mexico Public Education Department to approve the raises in accordance to state law.
However, according to Washburn, the idea was shot down by the New Mexico Attorney General’s office over the retroactive aspect of the increase.
“They consider it a gift of public funds, so we can’t do that,” Washburn said at the meeting.
A statement from the State Attorney General’s office to the administration further clarified the reasoning.

The advisory board of the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos campus unanimously voted Monday to raise tuition by 6.31 percent.
The proposal will be sent to the UNM Board of Regents for final approval.
If approved by the regents, the increase translates into an extra $4.75 per credit hour for classes for New Mexico residents. Now, residents will be paying $74 per credit hour to take classes at the school.
Non-residents will be paying $205 per credit hour at UNM-LA, which translates into a net increase of $6 per credit hour.
Before the vote, UNM-LA’s CEO Wynn Goering told the board why the hike is necessary. Factoring into the hike are the amount of educational funding the state legislature is expected to distribute to higher education this year, enrollment levels and property taxes.
“For better or worse, Los Alamos County this past year was one of the few counties in the state whose valuation went down…what that means to the (UNM-LA) branch is that’s a decrease in the amount of revenue we have available,” Goering said to the board.
Other driving factors included the recent dramatic tuition hikes of other regional community colleges, such as Northern New Mexico College.

Former University of New Mexico-Los Alamos Advisory Board member Linda Hull is presented with a thank you gift in the form of flowers and a card by UNM-LA Advisory Board Chairman Stephen Boerighter during a ceremony Monday.

Los Alamos High School prom organizers have released information about the upcoming event.
The Class of 2016 is presenting “Prom 2015 — Moonlight Sonata.” The event will be at the Buffalo Thunder Resort near Pojoaque.
Organizers said the final plans are currently underway for the prom, which will be April 25.
The evening will begin with a welcome reception at the Buffalo Thunder starting at 6:30 p.m. That will be followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m.
The dance will go through midnight.
Junior class representatives said they were “thrilled” to have a chance to make this a memorable event, in a statement.
“We as students think it is important that we recognize all the hard work and dedication we put into our time at LAHS,” the statement read in part. “Having a fantastic Prom is our way of recognizing each other.”
Here are the plans and information for the event:

Wednesday night was Kurt Steinhaus’ night to win the people over.
He didn’t disappoint.
A virtually exact number of people showed up to see if Steinhaus had what it takes to be the district’s next superintendent as it did for Chris Marczak’s presentation Monday.
And like Marczak, he came prepared. Every one of the audience members that attended received a four-page handout from the superintendent candidate. One espoused his education and leadership philosophies, another his future goals for district, another paper listed the values that guided him as an educator and the last one talked about what values he wanted the district to reflect.
He started off his presentation talking about his deep professional and personal ties to Los Alamos, ties that included his first job as a kid running a neighborhood lawn mowing service to his student teaching career, getting married (he and his wife Jo Beth had their reception at Fuller Lodge), to his becoming director of Community Programs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
After his presentation, the audience wasted no time with asking him the tough questions about funding for education and teacher evaluation.

Around the state, there have been reports of walkouts at several public schools in protest of the state’s evaluation testing.
As of Wednesday morning, there hadn’t been any at Los Alamos Public Schools. And Superintendent Gene Schmidt wants to keep it that way.
LAPS released a letter to the press Tuesday afternoon warning students about the possible consequences of walking out on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing, which many teachers, students and parents have complained about on social media.
Schmidt said in his letter LAPS was “aware of campaigns on social media” encouraging local students to walk out on testing. While his letter stated that the rights of students are respected, that anyone refusing to participate might “jeopardize their ability to obtain a high school diploma.”
According to LAPS, the PARCC serves the purpose of a high school competency exam, which all students are required by law to pass in order to receive a diploma.
Further, LAPS stated anyone taking part in a walkout protest would be considered unexcused and may be subjected to the district’s discipline system.

Monday was busy day for Superintendent candidate Chris Marczak.
The day started off with an early morning interview on KRSN before heading off to spend the rest of a very long day being interviewed by various school board-appointed subcommittees comprised of parents, teachers, school administrators, the business community, as well as the Los Alamos School Board.
By the time 7 p.m. rolled around, the time when he was to make a presentation to the general public at the Los Alamos High School’s speech theater, one would think he’d show some signs of slowing down.
Instead, the general public got a man dressed in a newly pressed business suit and a crisp tie who didn’t have a hair out of place.
Marczak jumped right into his 10-minute presentation about his background and what he was all about.
“Innovation doesn’t happen with my position… innovation happens in the classroom,” he said toward the close of his presentation. “So what do I do to remove barriers so that more teachers and principals have what they need to be successful? I could sit up in central office and bark orders all day long, but unless I get out of my office and I get into the classroom and I find out what teachers need for kids, that’s where the innovation takes place. I remove barriers.”

Those wanting “in” on how the Los Alamos Public Schools can best educate children, or those who feel like they have something constructive to say about how the schools are run will have a chance to speak up.
The Los Alamos School Board as well as its 2015-16 School Budget Committee, in fact, wants to hear those ideas.
From now until mid-April the committee will be holding a series of public hearings at Los Alamos High School to hear what residents have to say about budget priorities. Its second meeting on the subject will take place Tuesday at Los Alamos High School’s speech theater, from 4-5 p.m.
The school district has to have its Fiscal Year 2015-16 Budget completed in two months. This year, it’s projected the school budget will be about $34 million, which includes annual funding the district receives from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“We build budgets every year and by state statute, we have to present to the New Mexico Public Education Department a balanced budget,” said Superintendent of Schools Gene Schmidt. “In this case, we are in a hurry because we have to present our budget to the New Mexico Public Education Department by May 1.” Schmidt added that at these meetings there will be places at the beginning for the public to give comment.

Those who want a hand in deciding who is going to be the next superintendent of the Los Alamos Public School system should definitely mark their calendars for Monday and Wednesday.
On those days, public forums will be held at the Los Alamos Speech Theater at 7 p.m. The Speech Theater is located between the gym and the library.
Los Alamos School Board and its subcommittees have narrowed down the choice of candidates to two. Those are Dr. Chris Marczak and Dr. Kurt Steinhaus.
Marczak will be appearing at the Monday forum and Steinhaus will be appearing at the Wednesday forum.
The candidates are also scheduled to be interviewed on KRSN radio (1490 AM, 107.1 FM) at 8:30 a.m. Marczak will be on KRSN Monday and Steinhaus on Wednesday.
Those planning to attend can fill out 3x5 cards, which will be will be available at the forums, where they can write questions down for the forum’s commentators to ask.
The candidates will each give a presentation before the Q and A session.
For more information about the search, go to laschools.net to find a section titled “Superintendent Search.”